Home invasion victims credit dog with saving their lives

A father and son are lucky to be alive after being shot allegedly by a man trying to rob their Chicopee home.

That man is now in custody.

The father spoke exclusively with CBS 3 Springfield, saying if it wasn't for the family dog, the night could have turned out much differently.

It was late night barking from 2-year-old beagle Roxy that roused Corey Bergeron out of his bed late Monday night.

"She was very adamant and banging on the door and I was in my bed and I'm trying to call her to the room and she won't come," Bergeron said.

When he followed her to the back door of their Madison Street home, he noticed the back gate was open.

"But I still didn't think anything of it," he said.

That was when Roxy ran down to the basement.

Bergeron never could have expected what he would find then.

"She kept barking and lunging and barking and lunging so I just kind of squatted down until I could see in the basement and came face to face with his gun ... all I could get out of my mouth is, 'What are you doing in here?' and I literally froze with probably fear, I couldn't move," Bergeron said.

Police say it was 34-year-old William Wright of Westfield who was in the basement.

Bergeron says Wright forced him upstairs, where his son, Nicholas Bergeron, and his girlfriend were watching TV.

"He said we're going to do this the easy way or the hard way. All I'm thinking is we're going to be duct taped, zip tied and killed over nothing," Corey Bergeron said.

He then threatened them, following them around the house, collecting jewelry and Nicholas Bergeron's savings from his room.

"That if we didn't put things into the bag that he would start shooting her legs, he put the gun right to her leg, put the gun to my son's head in the bedroom, telling him that he knows he has more in there than we had," Corey Bergeron said.

When the robber asked to be taken to the front door and let out, Corey Bergeron said he suddenly turned, thinking he had been trapped, and that's when instinct kicked in.

"I mistook him turning around that he was going to shoot me and I basically attacked him at that point, just absolutely attacked him," Corey Bergeron said.

Corey Bergeron said Wright fired several rounds.

"I turned his hand this way and I thought I had the gun pointed the other way and he just released one, two, three."

Bullets sprayed the ceiling, then the wall, before finally making contact with first Corey Bergeron and then his son.

"I've got two holes, two holes and my son has two holes in his back side for jewelry and cash."

The robber finally ran from the home where Chicopee police were pulling up and waiting.

Police say Wright even fired a round at them, narrowly missing an officer.

He was taken into custody and his attorney waived his right to appear at his arraignment Tuesday in Chicopee District Court.

Corey Bergeron says he can't believe someone was lurking in his basement without him having any idea.

"He made it all the down my driveway and into my house and we knew nothing, we knew nothing. And I gotta tell you I never wanted a dog."

But he says if it wasn't for Roxy, he may not be alive today.

"If I didn't have that dog I'm telling you, he would've gotten me. I would've just gone out the door and closed the gate and he could've done anything, my back would've been to him at that point."

The Bergerons say their back door was unlocked but from now on they will lock it.

Wright is being held without the right to bail pending a dangerousness hearing next Tuesday.

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